Assignment 1:  Case Studies from the history of Western Science.

Due:  MWF February 11 to 15.  10% for presentation, 10% for paper.

You will do this assignment in a group of five people.

After each title of a case, I have listed a number of people who were involved in the case.  You do not have to include these people in your presentation, nor is the list of names exhaustive.

If you think of another case study which you think is integral to the development of Western science, please tell me.  I have not thought of everything here.  Your ideas are welcome.  However, the first four of the cases must be done.

Your group’s research of the case will focus on the particular event you have chosen (or been assigned to).  You should use Holton’s facets of science as a way of analyzing the event.  However, the point of the assignment is to attempt to determine what effect(s) the particular event had on the evolution of western science.

In your group, you will decide what approach you will take on presenting your research to the rest of the class.  You will have 20 to 25 minutes to present your research.  Options for presentation are limited by your imagination and common decency.  Choose an appropriate instructional strategy, such as concept formation, or role play, or simulation or debate.  Let me know if you are going to use the computer for your presentation.

You will divide up the research, so that one person is not collecting and reading all the books.  You will have to meet to organize the material, but you can meet asynchronously on line.

Each of you will hand in to me a maximum of three pages of the research you did, written in proper academic style, and properly referenced.  Your three page paper should be organized around the key points of the scientific event, using one or more of Holton’s facets of scientific events.  Half the mark for this assignment will come from your three page write up.  The other half the mark will be shared with your group members, and will be assigned for the 20 to 25 minute presentation.

Assignment 2:  Technological Literacy

Due Monday, March 4.  20%

Choose a partner.  You will work in pairs for this assignment.

Choose a technology.  Develop a teaching module where your students will investigate and learn about the technology.  A teaching module is a set of lessons, three to five lessons, with a common theme.  Your teaching module should help your students come to a new understanding of a technology.  Use Fleming’s paper “Literacy for a technological age” as your framework for analyzing the technology.  Suggestions of technologies are:  writing, paper, pulleys, electricity, house cleaning, laundry, domestic animals, internet, credit cards….  Again, you are limited only by your imagination and common decency ­ although this brings to mind the invention of the flush toilet, by Sir Thomas Crapper (knighted for this most excellent invention).

What you will hand in:  A concept web including the technical, organizational and cultural aspects of the technology.  A one paragraph rationale justifying why it is important for your students to learn about the particular technology you have chosen.  Three to five lessons, written so that a substitute teacher could use them, with the module including at least three different instructional methods.  See the requirements of a basic lesson plan on the course web page.  See the instructional methods on the course web page.

When you hand this assignment in, you and your partner will tell me who did the most work, by how you want the mark divided.  If you want your mark evenly shared, then I assume you are both accepting that you did equal amounts of work.  If you both agree that all the mark should go to one person, I will assume that one partner did nothing.  Etc.  You both must agree on the mark division.

Assignment 3:  Course Readings

There are two texts, and there are numerous articles on reserve in the library for you.  You are expected to read, and to participate in discussions of these readings.  I will use checklists, anecdotal comments, fast-writes, and exit slips to determine whether you have read the papers and texts, and the depth to which you have considered these readings.  In some cases, to alleviate the intensity of the readings, you will be in reading groups.  In these cases, your peers in your reading group might be asked to assess whether you have completed your share of the readings.